===[COMMITTED]=== Mauryan War Elephant (and hero elephant)

[Mythos_Ruler]

Progress?

[Enrique]

Not yet, still finishing propping the stables, and I'll come back to work on this

[Mythos_Ruler]

The elephant UVs need tweaked. Maybe we can chat about it when you have the chance.

[Enrique]

African elephant UVs fixed. Now the tail is set to it's corresponding texture space, the neck is also fixed and some extreme stretching has been fixed also.

In addition I've commited the "prop turret" for the temporary support elephant. It will need some more playercolor though. Suggestions?

EDIT: I'll resume soon the work on the armor while working on the docks, but I think Zaggy wants to make some changes on the asian elephant, so I'll focus on the texture rather than the armor geometry

Edited January 22, 2013 by Enrique

[Enrique]

I gave it a try for a new asian elephant mesh. It would be great to hear some input from Zaggy where he wants the edgeloops to bend the knees and such.

[Mythos_Ruler]

Looks great!

[sanderd17]

I gave it a try for a new asian elephant mesh. It would be great to hear some input from Zaggy where he wants the edgeloops to bend the knees and such.

Great proportions, but I think the tusks are a bit big for an Asian elephant.

Tusks

All African elephants, male and female, have tusks - whereas only some male Asian elephants have tusks. African tusks are generally bigger. About 50% of female Asian elephants and a small percentage of males have small tusk like teeth known as tushes.

http://www.eleaid.com/index.php?page=differencesbetweenafricanandasianelephants

It's of course possible (and highly probably) that they selected elephants with big, sharp tusks as war elephants, but I think the Maurian support elephant could even be without tusks.

Apart from that, it looks very Asian, great job.

Btw, sorry for telling this so late, but I only notice it with the smaller ears (it makes the tusks more prominent, which shouldn't be the case).

[lilstewie]

I gave it a try for a new asian elephant mesh. It would be great to hear some input from Zaggy where he wants the edgeloops to bend the knees and such.

That looks 100 times better.

Edited January 23, 2013 by lilstewie

[lilstewie]

Idk if you wanna add this or not, but there are coloration differences. Some Indian elephants are two-toned like this.

two toned

Mono-toned

Monotone ones make up the bulk.

Edited January 23, 2013 by lilstewie

[serveurix]

I gave it a try for a new asian elephant mesh. It would be great to hear some input from Zaggy where he wants the edgeloops to bend the knees and such.

Great !

The asian elephant could be a little bit smaller than the african elephant, in my opinion. Apart from that, it's perfect.

@lilstewie : What I mostly notice in the first pictures is that the tusks are carved. Did mauryan also used to cut their elephant's tusks like that ?

[Enrique]

I managed to get a decent UV with very little stretching, however, I'm running low of elephant texture as you can see. Should I generate some stretching and fit the current texture? or can I modify it and make the "props" texture space smaller?

[Mythos_Ruler]

If you can modify it and have it look good (the wrinkles in the skin and stuff), then go ahead.

[lilstewie]

Great !

The asian elephant could be a little bit smaller than the african elephant, in my opinion. Apart from that, it's perfect.

@lilstewie : What I mostly notice in the first pictures is that the tusks are carved. Did mauryan also used to cut their elephant's tusks like that ?

I dont know if the Mauryans did that. Those first elephants are worker elephants or temple elephants. I dont know why they carve it either.

[Mythos_Ruler]

Great !

The asian elephant could be a little bit smaller than the african elephant, in my opinion. Apart from that, it's perfect.

There are two African elephants. One is the Savanna elephant, which is the largest, and the other is the Forest elephant, which is actually smaller than Asian elephants. Carthage and Egypt used the North African Forest Elephant, which is smaller than the Asian elephant.

[Enrique]

If you can modify it and have it look good (the wrinkles in the skin and stuff), then go ahead.

Some progress on the elephant texture. (I can try to remove the neck-head seam cloning with blender if you think it's very noticeable)

Also question, do we want both joints (red and blue) to bend the legs? or just the red ones?

You can see here that they bend the lower part when walking:

[sanderd17]

Oooh, so nice.

For the seam, I didn't notice it at first. It would of course be better if it was continuous, but I don't think people are going to notice it in the game.

About the bending, it looks like only the front legs are bend twice. You can clearly see that the metacarpus (mid-hand-bone)is longer than the metatarsus (mid-feet-bone).

Also see this movie:

the front legs clearly have two strong bending points. While the hind legs have one strong bend point.

So I would propose the blue and red dots for the front legs, and only the red for the hind legs. Btw, the actual bending point is at the wrist, so it looks like your dot is drawn a bit too low on the front legs.

But a wonderful model.

[Enrique]

Thanks Sanderd17 I ended up modifying it with two bending in the front and one in the back.

Here are some basic deform tests with an awful rig. Let me know if any changes are needed before commiting for serious rigging.

[sanderd17]

The bending looks very natural to me.

[Enrique]

The bending looks very natural to me.

I ended up making the second bend in the front legs closer to the ankle and making the second bending joint in the rear legs by Zaggy's request. Here's the blendfile with the elephant, a light setup and a test armor mesh.

asian elephant newmesh.zip

[Sighvatr]

Hooray for new elephants!

[lilstewie]

Will you guys do the same changes to the African one or no?

Edited February 1, 2013 by lilstewie

[Zaggy1024]

Will you guys do the same changes to the African one or no?

The African elephant has ankle joints, I'm not sure what you mean...Is there something you don't like about the animations?

[lilstewie]

The African elephant has ankle joints, I'm not sure what you mean...Is there something you don't like about the animations?

Yeah, that's what I mean. I didn't notice, never mind.

[Enrique]

Cavalry Archer. Basic has one dude on its back. Advanced has 2. Elite has 3. Notice the red colored designs painted on the elephant's skin. Also, note the bells hanging from the neck.

War Elephant champion siege unit. Notice how the armour hangs under the elephant.

Either Chandragupta Maurya or Ashoka the Great will ride an elephant with a howdah on top, like this:

Restarted elephants armor based on those concepts. Still heavy wip.

[Mythos_Ruler]

Awesome work so far. Perhaps the head armor should be a prop though. Thoughts?